498 



This Petrel, so essentially a bird of the ocean, has, as may be supposed, a tolerably extensive 

 range, being found in the Atlantic from St. Kilda and the coasts of Labrador, southward on the 

 American coast to Washington, and on our side to Madeira. It likewise occurs on the west 

 coast of North America; but I am unable to trace its precise range in the Pacific. Except 

 during the breeding-season, and when driven in from the ocean by stress of weather, it is rarely 

 to be met with near land ; and the various instances on record of its having been obtained in 

 different parts of Europe refer almost invariably to specimens which had been shot or caught 

 after a severe storm of some days' duration. On our English coasts, especially on the western 

 side of our island, it occurs not unfrequently, even in the extreme south. I recollect having 

 seen, at different times during the last fifteen years, several specimens obtained in the south of 

 England, chiefly on the coast of Sussex ; and Mr. George Dawson Rowley records the occurrence 

 of several near Brighton (Ibis, 1860, p. 200) as follows : — " The frightful storms in the first week 

 of November last appear to have been, as usual, destructive to the Laridce, but particularly to 

 the Fork-tailed Petrels (Procellaria leachii) ; three specimens were found at or near Seaford — 

 one, November 3rd, by a beach-comber. I saw this in the meat ; it was in moult, and had the 

 new black down underneath ; its plumage was shabby. November 6th, another was captured 

 alive ; and the third, November 8th, also living, by a coast-guard : the two first appeared to have 

 been starved ; but the last was in good condition. One was also picked up dead, November 7th, 

 at Eynesbury, near St. Neots, Huntingdonshire. The cause of this mortality I take to be the 

 roughness of the sea, which prevents the Petrels from feeding ; and when, weak from fasting, 

 they try to shift their quarters, the wind then overpowers them, and they are dashed against 

 cliffs and rocks. Frequently the plumage of specimens obtained in this manner is quite worn 

 away by attrition, as if the birds had endeavoured to rise above some obstacle, and only succeeded 

 after many efforts." Mr. Cecil Smith informs me that in Somersetshire " it occasionally occurs 

 as a rough-weather straggler in different parts of the county, both on the coast and inland, where 

 it is occasionally found in a state of exhaustion. The last notice I received of such an occurrence 

 was in a note from the Rev. C. G. Anderson, dated December 10th, 1873, in which he says that 

 a Fork-tailed Petrel had been caught by one of his parishioners, last month, at Combwick, near 

 Otterhampton, and was alive, but dying." On the east coast it is much less often met with ; but 

 Mr. H. Stevenson sends me the following notes on the occurrences of this species in Norfolk 

 which have been recorded : — " The earliest record of this species in Norfolk is that recorded by 

 Messrs. Paget as picked up dead on the beach at Yarmouth, on December 5th, 1823 ; and it is 

 also worthy of note that in the edition of Bewick's ' British Birds ' published in 1826 (vol. ii. 

 p. 244) this species is first figured and described by that author from a specimen and notes 

 supplied him by the late Mr. Yarrell, the bird itself having been bought alive in Leadenhall 

 Market on the 3rd of November, 1823, and said to have been caught on the Essex coast. Selby 

 records one in the late Rev. R. Hamond's collection, as 'picked up dead upon a warren in 

 Norfolk,' the date not given; but Selby's 'British Ornithology' was published in 1833. In 1849 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney recorded in the ' Zoologist ' the occurrence of a male and female of this Petrel 

 at Yarmouth, in the months of October and December 1849 ; and in Mr. Gurney's collection is 

 also a specimen from Yarmouth, but the date uncertain. On the 17th November, 1862, an 

 example, in my own collection, was shot on the coast at Salthouse ; and another was picked up 



